Retaining MS Word Formatting

This is a very basic lesson, and a short one, but it BLEW MY MIND so I thought I would share.

If you've every copied text from MS Word and gone to paste it elsewhere (like Gmail for instance), you've probably experienced the soul-crushing, teeth-gnashing frustration of losing your formatting. I'm a fairly computer literate person, but I've spent years re-formatting emails, query letters, and writing samples, never knowing that THERE IS A SIMPLE SOLUTION:

• Open the MS Word document you wish to copy and paste
• Click "Save As"
• Save the file as a "Web Page" into one of your documents folders
• Open the folder, and right click on the file
• Select "Open With"
• Open with Google Chrome (*Disclaimer: This may work with other browsers. I've only tried with Chrome)
• Copy and paste your selection
• Marvel over the sheer awesomeness of not having lost your formatting

Do you need to have perfect formatting to be taken seriously? Will you be auto-rejected for wonky spacing or missing italics? Probably not. But it never hurts to take things up a notch. And as a frequent reader of contest slushpiles, the properly formatted entries are MUCH more enjoyable to read (and if I end up torn between two with equally good writing, I'll pick the properly formatted one every time). So give this technique a try if you're struggling the way I was. It's worth a few extra steps to show that you know your stuff.